In recent years, climate change has had a great impact
According to climate scientists, a key climate process,
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap some of the heat,
The evidence shows that the rise in temperature has led to an increase in extreme weather and natural
2 . Rising sea levels, extremes of weather and more droughts and floods will all destroy the world’s energy systems as global warming picks up its pace, a new report has found.
Energy companies are quite often cited as part of the problems of climate change, generating the lion’s share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, amounting to around 60% of the total. But they will also suffer as global warming worsens.
Many large plants are particularly threatened by floods because they lack protection from sudden storms. Electricity distribution networks are also likely to be affected.
Christoph Frei, secretary general of WEC, said governments must play a key role in ensuring the world’s important infrastructure is protected. Climate change is certain to affect the energy sector. We need powerful policy frameworks to unlock the long-term investments that are urgently needed to deliver the future we want. Leadership will be required at all levels.
Despite efforts to increase energy efficiency, the amount of energy used globally is still set to rise. But the effects of this could be reduced if companies spend more energy on renewable and low-carbon forms of energy.
However, there is little sign so far that energy companies around the world have got this message. Fossil fuels continues to dominate new investment in energy generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency. Besides, we have failed in creating a global price for carbon emissions, which could help to reverse this trend.
Another key focus must be energy distribution networks, according to the report, as new technology can be used to make them “smart”, saving energy by distributing energy from generators to users in more intelligent ways.
“The time has come to get real about the challenges facing the energy sector,” Frei said.
Philipes Joubert, executive chairman of WEC’s global electricity initiative and former president of Alstom Power, said large companies are taking note. “Leading businesses in this sector are increasingly realising that business as usual is no longer acceptable.”
1. The energy companies are also sufferers because _________.| A．they are responsible for climate change |
| B．their greenhouse gas emissions make up 60% of the total |
| C．some sudden natural disasters have a great effect on them |
| D．the government provides no protection for them |
| A．Positive. | B．Concerned. | C．Optimistic. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．Energy Companies Are to Blame for Their Behaviours |
| B．Renewable and Low-carbon Forms of Energy Will Be a Trend |
| C．Energy Distribution Networks Must Be Smarter |
| D．The World’s Energy Systems Suffer from Climate Change |
3 . In the last 100 years, the global temperature has gone up by around 0.75℃. Such a small increase is causing sea levels to rise and
Sea levels in the UK have increased by around 10 cm in the last 100 years and experts
As a result of the changing
The biggest
| A．attacking | B．ignoring | C．threatening | D．discovering |
| A．limitation | B．reduction | C．increase | D．improvement |
| A．extinction | B．escape | C．change | D．development |
| A．argue | B．explain | C．doubt | D．predict |
| A．Surprisingly | B．Consequently | C．Immediately | D．Usually |
| A．climate | B．height | C．period | D．environment |
| A．forcing | B．allowing | C．causing | D．helping |
| A．animal | B．species | C．plants | D．population |
| A．wasted | B．needed | C．supplied | D．stored |
| A．produces | B．includes | C．requires | D．provides |
| A．transporting to | B．searching for | C．planting in | D．cutting down |
| A．questions | B．activities | C．procedures | D．disasters |
| A．challenge | B．disadvantage | C．adventure | D．influence |
| A．consider | B．deny | C．stop | D．hate |
| A．time | B．energy | C．inspiration | D．knowledge |
More than 11000 scientists are warning that the Earth, in their words “clearly faces a climate emergency.” The scientists represent several fields of study and come from 150
The new report
5 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides a year into 24 solar terms (节气). Cold Dew (寒露), the 17th solar term of the year, begins this year on Oct. 8 and ends on Oct. 23. At this time, the dew is greater and colder and there will be less rain. Autumn crops will be ripe. Here are three things you should know about Cold Dew.
Foggy autumn
Temperatures drop significantly in October. When the cold air encounters autumn rain, the abundant water vapor in the air soon reaches saturation (饱和状态), and then it turns into fog. When the humidity is high, there will be foggy regions formed in many areas of China.
Season for fishing
People always say that fishing in shallow water in autumn makes sense. That’s because during the Cold Dew period, temperatures decrease quickly and sunshine doesn’t reach deep water thoroughly. Fish swim to shallow water areas where the water temperature is relatively high.
Season for drinking chrysanthemum (菊花) wine
Chrysanthemum is the iconic flower of Cold Dew. To prevent autumn dryness, many regions in China have the custom of drinking chrysanthemum wine. This is a tradition of the Double Ninth Festival, which often falls around Cold Dew. According to ancient records, drinking wine made with chrysanthemums, poria cocos mushroom and pine oleoresin grants (给予) people long-lasting youth.
1. What is NOT the characteristic of Cold Dew?| A．Wet weather. | B．Low temperatures. |
| C．Foggy conditions. | D．Fully-grown crops. |
| A．Because fish become mature in autumn. |
| B．Because fish move slowly in cold water. |
| C．Because fish eat more in low temperatures. |
| D．Because fish tend to gather in warm areas. |
| A．Celebrating Cold Dew. | B．Relieving people from autumn dryness. |
| C．Ensuring people a stronger build. | D．Keeping people warm in low temperatures. |
6 . One of the ocean’s noisiest creatures is smaller than you’d expect — snapping shrimp (鼓虾). They create a widespread background noise in the underwater environment, which helps them communicate, protect their homes and hunt for food. When enough shrimp snap (发出噼啪声) at once, the noise can be deafening.
Aran Mooney, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, suggested that with increased ocean temperatures, snapping shrimp will snap more often and louder than before. This could raise the background noise of the global ocean. “They make a sound by closing a claw so fast. This makes a bubble (泡泡) and when that bubble bursts, it makes that snapping sound,” said Mooney.
Mooney discovered a strong relationship between warmer waters and more frequent snapping shrimp sounds after experimenting with the shrimp in tanks in the lab and by listening to the shrimp in the ocean at various water temperatures. “As the temperature rises, the snap rate increases,” he said. This makes sense because shrimp are essentially cold-blooded animals, meaning their body temperature and activity levels are largely controlled by their living environment. “We can actually show in the field that not only do snap rates increase, but the sound levels increase as well.”
How the louder snapping shrimp would affect or benefit the surroundings remained to be seen. “We know that fish use sound to communicate,” Mooney said. “If the environment gets noisy, it has the possibility to influence that communication. That’s something we have to follow up on.” There is also the possibility that the change of snapping shrimp affects machines humans use to discover mines, which could lead to unpleasant results.
1. What can we know about the snapping shrimp’s sound?| A．It aims to protect the shrimp. | B．It is important to the ecosystem. |
| C．It has different uses for the shrimp. | D．It is hard to be discovered by other creatures. |
| A．By observing snapping shrimp in the field. | B．By recording the snap rates in the lab. |
| C．By analyzing the way shrimp make noise. | D．By comparing shrimp’s sound in different places. |
| A．Other uses of shrimp’s sound. | B．Influences of the noise on other creatures. |
| C．Means of communication among fish. | D．Methods of stopping shrimp’s snapping. |
| A．Underwater World Is No Longer Quiet | B．Small Animals Make a Big Difference |
| C．Warming Oceans Are Getting Louder | D．Snapping Shrimp’s Noise Speaks Much |
All scientists subscribe to the view that it is human activity
The Earth set unofficial record high temperatures last week. Scientists said they were a clear sign of how pollutants
Most of the planet
In April, worldwide ocean temperature rose to 21.1 degrees Celsius,
High levels of wildfire smoke are more common on the West Coast. But, recently, several rounds of wildfire smoke from wildfires in northern Canada brought
The current El Nino formed a month or two
The World Meteorological Organization predicts there is
9 . The streets, sidewalks and roofs of cities all absorb heat during the day, making some urban areas across the United States up to 6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than rural ones during the day—and 22 degrees F hotter at night. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as the city heat spreads downward, beneath the surface. And basements, subway tunnels and other underground infrastructure also constantly bleed heat into the surrounding earth, creating hotspots. Now the underground heat is building up as the planet warms.
According to a new study of downtown Chicago, underground hotspots may threaten the very same structures that emit the heat in the first place. Such temperature changes make the ground around them expand and contract (收缩) enough to cause potential damage. “Without anyone realizing it, the city of Chicago’s downtown was deforming,” says the study’s author Alessandro F. Rotta Loria, a civil and environmental engineer at Northwestern University.
The findings, published in Communications Engineering, expose a “silent hazard (危险)” to civil infrastructure in cities with soft er ground — especially those near water — Rotta Loria says. “There might have been structural issues caused by this underground climate change that happened, and we didn’t even realize,” he adds. While not an immediate or direct danger to human lives, this previously unknown effect highlights the impacts of a lesser-known component of climate change.
Similar to climate change above the surface, these underground changes occur over long periods of time. “These effects took decades, a century, to develop,” Rotta Loria says, adding that elevated underground temperatures would likewise take a long time to dissipate (逐渐消失) on their own.
But other researchers interviewed for this story all say this wasted energy could also be recycled, presenting an opportunity to both cool the subsurface and save on energy costs. Subway tunnels and basements could be updated with technologies to recapture the heat. For example, water pipes could be installed to run through underground hotspots and pick up some of the heat energy.
1. What can we learn about the “urban heat islands”?| A．They can develop underground structures. |
| B．They are impacted by global warming. |
| C．They can destroy the ground around. |
| D．They only exist in the United States. |
| A．To discuss structural issues. |
| B．To categorize climate change. |
| C．To explain underground heat. |
| D．To emphasize the neglected reality. |
| A．The future of tunnels and basements. |
| B．The reusing approaches of heat energy. |
| C．The cost of maintaining structures. |
| D．The evolution of underground environment. |
| A．Warming Underground, Weakening Surface |
| B．A Silver Lining of Global Warming |
| C．Urban Silent Islands in the Making |
| D．A Silent Crisis in Downtown Chicago |
10 . Disastrous floods in eastern Libya killed at least 5,100 people, according to local authorities. The disaster comes after a series of deadly floods around the world this month, from China to Brazil to Greece. In every case, extremely heavy rain was to blame.
The enormous loss of life on many continents strengthens the extreme danger caused by climate-driven rainstorms, and the need for better warning systems and basic facilities to protect the most vulnerable (脆弱的) populations.
Climate change makes heavy rain more common, even in dry places where the total amount of rainfall is small. That’s because a hotter atmosphere can hold more moisture. Everyday rainstorm, as well as bigger storms such as hurricanes, are increasingly dangerous as a result. In Libya, a storm called Daniel swept in from the Mediterranean over the weekend and resulted in a jaw-dropping 16 inches of rain in just 24 hour, according to the World Meteorological Organization. That is far too much water for the ground to absorb, especially in a dry climate where the soil is dry and is less able to suck up water quickly.
The massive amount of rain caused widespread flash flooding, and damaged at least one dam near the coastal city of Derna. That released torrents of water powerful enough to sweep away entire neighborhoods. In Brazil, flooding from a hurricane last week killed more than 20 people and left a large piece of southern Brazil underwater. Cities around the world are hurrying to improve their basic facilities to handle increasingly common heavy rain.
The disasters in the last two weeks also stress the vulnerability to climate change of people who are not wealthy or who live in places that are at war. While extreme rain has caused floods around the world recently, the number of the death is significantly higher in places where there isn’t money or political will to maintain basic facilities and enough weather warning systems.
1. What led to the floods in Libya?| A．Extreme rainfall. | B．Wet climate. |
| C．Severe hurricane. | D．Broken facilities. |
| A．Separate. | B．Supply. | C．Store. | D．Absorb. |
| A．They lead to people’s union. | B．They cost people their lives. |
| C．They inspire people to struggle. | D．They make people become strong. |
| A．Floods linked to climate change. | B．Floods in Libya and their causes. |
| C．The needs of disaster preparedness. | D．Climate change impact on poor areas. |
